ello!" cried Sterling, who seemed taken aback by the encounter. "What
have you done with my automobile, and why did you not answer my
letters?"

"Your automobile is here in Detroit; a little the worse for wear,
perhaps, but there is nothing wrong with it that you cannot put right in
short order. As for letters, I never received any. I thought I had
notified you of my changed address."

"As a matter of fact, you didn't."

"In that case, I apologise most humbly. The truth is, Mr. Sterling,
I have been working practically night and day, often under very
discouraging circumstances. Until quite recently there was nothing
hopeful to tell, and the moment I struck a bit of good luck, I came on
here in the car to let you know. You see, it was very difficult to
interest capital in a proposition that apparently has no substantiality
behind it. If you had possessed a big factory in going order, that I
could have shown a man over, the company would have been formed long
ago. It therefore surprised me exceedingly, when I passed your shop
less than a hour ago, to see standing in this window, while you were
explaining the car to him, the man on whom I chiefly depended. You must
put it down to my credit that instead of coming in as I had intended,
thus embarrassing him, and perhaps spoiling a deal by my interference, I
passed on, waited until he came out, and followed him to his hotel."

Sterling was plainly nonplussed.

"I wish you had come in an hour earlier," he said. "You couldn't have
interfered with a deal, because your option ran out two months ago."

"I know that," said Parkes regretfully, "but I thought the good work
on my part would have made up for a legal lapse. Indeed, Mr. Sterling,
if you will allow me to say so, I had such supreme faith in your
own honesty, that I believed you would not hesitate to renew our
arrangement."

"That's just the point," said Sterling. "Had you come in an hour sooner,
you would have been in time. As it is, I have granted a new option to
the man you saw here with me."

"What name did he give you? Trevelyan?"

"No; the name he mentioned was Henry Johnson."

Parkes laughed a little, then checked himself.

"He went under the name of Trevelyan in New York, but I know neither
that nor Johnson is his true title. Well, is he going in with you,
then?"

"He has asked for a week to decide."

Now Parkes laughed more heartily.

"I took him out in your motor in New York, and there also he as